Blog/News

This week’s installment of Links we Like is my final here at From the Top. It has been such an honor to share my thoughts and ideas on this blog for the past two months, and an experience I will not soon forget. Wanting to end on a high note (no musical pun intended), we […]

As a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, 17 year-old vocalist Kara Sainz, along with three peers from the Murrieta Valley High School choir, organized an interactive program demonstrating classical music for a group of nearly 75 elementary school children at the Ysabel Barnett Elementary School in Temecula, CA. The program was titled the “Joy of Opera” […]

As you know, From the Top showcases the best young musical talent from across the country. But what about the support behind these amazing kids – the parents? We’ve set out to tap into the rich knowledge base of From the Top performer parents in an effort to share information, stories, and encouragement on raising […]

Although From the Top doesn’t tape many radio shows during the summer, our staff keep busy during these hot months with an important and exciting task – holding live auditions for our NPR radio show. Live auditions are an opportunity for us to hear young musicians in a different and fun capacity; most of our auditions come […]

This week’s Links we Like is one of my last as an intern here at From the Top, so I wanted to take this opportunity to stress the inner strength and beauty of music. This final installment observes the capacity of music to better the lives of others. Whether it be the gift of healing, the […]

In May, we posted the inspiring ambitions of harpist Anna DeLoi, who has spent the summer traveling and performing with her ensemble Heartstrings to raise funds for CureSearch, a children’s cancer research foundation. The group has achieved a great deal these past two months. Anna joined forces with two musician friends, Nash Ryder and Keith […]

We recently received an amazing email from alum and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Bella Markham, who you may remember had a fantastic Arts Leadership project we profiled a few weeks ago.  We share her thoughts below on how the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award has changed her life. When I received the Jack […]

Years ago a 13-year-old pianist from Centrailia, Washington wowed us with a performance of Taccotta by Gian Carlo Menotti. Now 21, Charlie Albright has won both the coveted 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and is preparing to make his debut in the Young Concert Artist Series in […]

17 year-old violinist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Yurie Mitsuhashi (Show #205) explored the relationship between music and dance with second through sixth grade students at two elementary schools in her hometown of Fort Lee, NJ this spring. She shared a wide range of music, portraying dances from many different cultures and time periods, […]

Whether it be performing a benefit concert for charity or simply encouraging others to attend a live performance, the future of music depends on the contribution of those who possess the knowledge and the means. As performers and fans of music, we must adapt a selfless approach to preserve an art form that stands as […]

If you reside in Boston, make sure to mark your calendars for December 5, 2010 – From the Top alum and violinist Caroline Goulding will be appearing at 1:30pm at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as part of their Sunday concert series. She’ll perform a few different pieces and will be accompanied by Shuai Wang […]

After appearing on From the Top, 16 year-old slack-key guitarist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Sean Robbins of Pahoa, HI organized a series of interactive performances at the Hilo Union Elementary School. He gave three 45-minute performances for fourth graders at the school, with about twenty students per group. Sean hoped to inspire these children to […]

On Friday, July 30 pianist George Li, who performed on From the Top’s 2006 show in Boston and appeared on the PBS show From the Top at Carnegie Hall, won first place at Oberlin College’s Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition. He won with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, with Jahja […]

This week in Links we Like, we take a glimpse at the abundance of summer’s classical music events occurring across the globe. From a listing of North American summer music festival concerts, to the establishment of a society for music education in Nepal, to a group of nuns from Avignon signing a record deal with […]

Great news from Roberto Granados, a From the Top alum from our Lubbock, Texas show.  He was recently contacted by the California Symphony, who requested he join them on May 1, 2011 to perform three movements from Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.”  He has commissioned a local luthier to have a special classical guitar made for […]

Violinist Stephen Waarts, who appeared on our 2009 show in Stanford, California, has been busy this summer! After winning second place in the Menuhin Competition earlier this year, Stephen performed with two symphonies in California – on May 23rd he played Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Prometheus Symphony and on June 6 he performed Brahms Violin Concerto […]

We just got word that 14-year-old violinist Stephen Kim, who appeared on our radio show in Mobile, Alabama in January 2009, recently won two musical awards. He received the Gold Medal in the 11th California International Young Artists Violin Competition in San Diego on June 13, which he shared with a 24 year old violinist. […]

We love when From the Top performers take Arts Leadership to the next level – 14 year-old violist Isabella Markham, a Jack Kent Cook Young Artist, has done just that by organizing a small concert series for a retirement center with the help of her brother and seven friends.  She titled the performance “Bella Palooza” […]

This week in Links we Like, we view the financial influences of the arts. Business transactions are a vital part of the music industry: raising funds for arts organizations, purchasing instruments/music materials, buying tickets and recordings, etc. Such an observation is a striking one in a time when our economy is placing more and more […]

Earlier this year, 16-year-old John Ringor (Show #202 and #206 ) and 17-year-old Joshua Jones (TV Episode 201, Show #171 and  #206), both Chicago percussionists and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipients, gave a performance and demonstration for children and their families at the Chicago Symphony Center. They were joined by eight of their colleagues […]